Running head: JOB EVALUATION WHOLE FOODS MARKET

Job Structure for Whole Food Market
Comfort Cooper
DeVry University –Keller School of Management
May 22, 2015

Job Evaluation for Whole Foods Market
Introduction
To begin the evaluation process for Whole Foods Market it is important to understand the dynamics behind the company. Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, when four local business people decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket. Whole Foods’ job structure is divided into teams and are grouped are grouped by which departments the team members work. This structure created by company is not a “happenstance” model, it is methodical because Whole Foods relies on the store, the organization, and the community it operates within to run smoothly and is profitable, which why each team member is responsible for ensuring that the operation of the teams run smoothly. Whole Foods along with many other companies want to attract and retain employees who share the same core values.
The model that Whole Foods has created is one where high quality and organic products are sold, providing excellent customer service and supporting their Team Members or in layman employees happiness and growth. Whole Foods core values center around building communities and creating partnerships that last a lifetime. To analyze the jobs presented in the case study, I used the information from the job descriptions to determine the job structure for Whole Foods Market.
Evaluation of Jobs and Job Structure

I was able to assign job titles based on the information found in the case study Job | Title | A | Prepared Foods Team Member | B | Customer Service Team Member | C | Prepared Foods Department Team Leader | D | Prepared Foods Quality Control | E | Dishwasher | F | Customer Service Front End Supervisor | G | Prepared Foods Associate Team Leader | H | Associate Store Team Leader | I | Stocker Team Member |

After careful analysis I was able to determine two categories for these job descriptions. The following two categories are as follows:

Process, Techniques and Factors
The method for evaluating the jobs presented in the case study that I used was the job ranking method. The reason I chose this techniques was quite simple, while using the Whole Foods website I was able to determine that the jobs within the company operate on a hierarchal scale. Further review of the website indicated that Whole Foods is a large corporation with less than thirty different job classifications. Job ranking may seem the simplest method for creating a job evaluation, the company puts their jobs in order from highest to lowest, for example Presidents, Regional Presidents, Facility Team Leaders, Store Team Leaders while Team Members and Specialized Team Members are at the lowest or entry-level positions.
To determine the compensation for these jobs I had to carefully examine the job descriptions of each job presented. Some key factors to consider were job responsibility, skill, knowledge and ability. It is no secret that Whole Foods has various departments in their stores, each having a different job description; we can classify these jobs into a particular category and predetermined grade. Let’s examine this a little more closely, if you have a team member in the bakery that has the same basic skills and knowledge as a team member in the meat department one would expect their responsibilities to be different. In the case of Whole Foods it is not so the qualifications and the requirements are the same. The resounding mantra is excellent customer service and maintaining the department. Whole Foods focus is more value on the job.
The pay for employees or team members are based on their position on the hierarchy it is not something that makes one person more important than another. As stated on their company website, “Whole Foods seek individuals who believe in their mission of Whole Foods, Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet-people who are enthusiastic about food and our products, and who want to join a culture of shared fate” (Whole FoodsMarket.com).
Team members employed by Whole Foods are recognized as valued employees. The company offers training and development programs to help an employee advance his or her career within the company.
Evaluation of Job Descriptions
It is my opinion the job descriptions in the case study could benefit from more structure. While reviewing the case study description I found I needed more details to determine an accurate job title. I did utilize information found on the company’s website to gain more insight into what was required and what the job entails. The job descriptions on the website were more detailed than those in the textbook, which helped me to draw a conclusion. To help me make a more accurate decision I would have benefited from more details. For example, for Job D, a detailed list of the job tasks would have helped.
The following is taken from the Prepared Foods Team Member position description under the summary: “As a member of our Prepared Foods Team, your role will include setting and maintaining attractive Prepared Foods displays and supporting the regional Prepared Foods vision. You will ensure a positive company image by providing courteous, friendly, and efficient customer service to customers and team members” (WholeFoodsMarket.com).
Listing the details like the website does would have made it much easier for the reader to decipher the job description. The requirements section was much more detailed. To help me to make an informed decision I compared the textbook job descriptions to those found on the company’s website. It was hard at first to make the correlation, but after careful review I was able to match jobs with job descriptions.
Conclusion
Assigning job titles to job descriptions is a new process for me; I struggled with this for a long time, because it was not clear as to how to do this task. If you are a novice at this process it can be very time consuming. This is a task that is best modeled by a lead administrator. I never realized this much work is put into creating jobs and job titles. Milovic, Newman and Gerhart state in their book Compensations that, “no matter the approach, the process begins by looking at people at work. Job-based structures look at what people are doing and expected outcomes; skill-and competency- based structures look at people” (Milkovich, Newman and Gerhart, 2014, p. 101).

References

Milkovich, Newman and Gerhart, 2014, Compensation, 11th Edition, McGraw Hill Irwin

Whole Foods Market http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/. Whole Foods Market core values http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/values/corevalues.php. Whole Foods Marker careers
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/index.php.